Storm Water Retention Ponds Assist The Spread Of West Nile Virus

Tampatrib.com ^

[Retired Chemist]

WASHINGTON - Public officials nationwide inadvertently are creating vast breeding grounds for mosquitoes, including those that carry the West Nile virus, by installing stormwater retention ponds near businesses and homes to reduce contaminants that collect in water. As concern over the mosquito-borne virus heightens, the effort to create new ponds and clean up old ones has pitted two environmental causes against each other.

The ponds help keep pollutants out of streams, bays and drinking water reservoirs while meeting federal and local water quality standards, advocates say. The purpose is to collect rainfall, urban runoff and chemicals from farms and lawns and help control flooding.

But the stormwater basins, which drain over days, create an ideal habitat for mosquitoes, encouraging the spread of diseases such as West Nile virus and St. Louis encephalitis.

``It drives us crazy,'' said Cyrus Lesser, chief of the mosquito control section of the Maryland Department of Agriculture. The ponds ``are everywhere, and they give us fits. The worst part is that they are being installed adjacent to business and residential areas, right next to where people live.

[Delmarksman]

"The worst part is that they are being installed adjacent to business and residential areas, right next to where people live."

I am a Land Surveyor in DE and here anyway, that last statement is an absloute fact. Every new Housing development or business that is built must have Stormwater Mgmt. Pond or the Conservation guys will ensure that nothing is built. In fact the pond is built before any construction is allowed.

Mousquito breeding area? Yes definitely! As even when it is dry everywhere else, the bottom of most ponds are wet.

Del

[two23]

Not only THAT, but they are ugly, expensive and a waste of resources and mostly serve the community by collecting litter and debris.
Most places are now "zero-runoff", which puts any PE in the postion of having to do "magic" on a site.
My favorite PE/RLS detests them.
I doubt the threat of mosquito's will change anything.

[Lil'freeper]

I doubt the threat of mosquitos will change anything.

Of course not. These areas are hallowed ground...aka "wetlands"!!!! We should gather around them, join hands and marvel at their ecological significance. (/sarcasm)

[Leisler]

Thankyou EPA.

[Marauder]

All they need to do is stock them with minnows.

[TroutStalker]

Storm Water Retention Ponds Assist The Spread Of West Nile Virus

So do wetlands.

[raisincane]

About 4 yrs. ago the company I work for started development of 17 acres. Not! There was a broken drain tile which was abandon years ago. EPA said there was about 1 1/2 acres of wetlands inhabiting the area. My boss had to find a new home for the wetlands. We moved it across the county to a farmer who wanted to start a welands. The co$t was terrific. Added thou$ands to the price of the project, which was then passed onto the buyers of the lots.

[Free the USA]

Index Bump

[brianl703]

There's a business park (Fairview Park) off of US 29 near Falls Church,VA. It's a nice shortcut to the capitol beltway from 29. Anyway, there's a place where they obviously intend to build an entrance for a non-yet-developed piece of land.

The only problem is that this place has a serious problem with standing water to the point that cattails are growing.

As I drove by it I thought "wouldn't it suck for that to be declared a federally-protected wetland because someone didn't put a storm drain there"?

What's the definition of a "wetland", anyway? I think I read that it was any places that has standing water for more than 10 days a year.

[AAABEST]

What's the definition of a "wetland", anyway? I think I read that it was any places that has standing water for more than 10 days a year>

Ha! That was the good old days when they just used water for determining wetlands.

Now in my part of Florida, if you have any one of 8 different types of soil on your property (which is essentially the entire state) some a$$hole bureaucrat can declare your property a "wetlands".

[madfly]

ping

[E.G.C.]

BTTT!!!!!

[HiJinx]

Minnows, yeah, that's the ticket!

Or, spray a film of oil on top of the pond. I mean, the pond is there to collect pollutants, isn't it?

Works for me!

[backhoe]

You know what I think:

West Nile Virus- Bring Back DDT?

100 things you should know about DDT

[two23]

I doubt the threat of mosquitos will change anything.

Of course not. These areas are hallowed ground...aka "wetlands"!!!! We should gather around them, join hands and marvel at their ecological significance. (/sarcasm)

Yeah, about wetlands..like I always say: whatever you do--don't whiz in the woods! (instant wetlands)

[Axenolith]

I had a project in the middle of nowhere (literally, It was about 20-30 miles due SE of of Susanville, CA) that really brings out the best of the wetlands hoakum. There was a good patch of property that the Highway department was going to use as a "wetlands mitigation" (WM for short) site.

You aquire property for WM so when you pave over an acre or two, there's no "net loss". The aquired property had some crap dumped on it including a few old vehicles and a used oil drum that was pretty close to empty. An area about the size of half a car had some oil staining.

There was all of 400 parts per million (ppm) of motor oil in that patch of soil but it had to go (for some odd reason, I guess this particular wetland wouldn't be able to digest this phenominal amount).

So, off we go with sampling equipment, a backhoe, and some big trucks. We had to assume there'd be enough to fill at least three by the job description, but we ended up barely filling one and racked up about 11K in costs.

Now here came the interesting part. Down the gravel road was a newly installed BIG ass well with a pump on it so big you could just envision the ground sucking down when that puppy fired up. This well probably cost somewhere between 50,000 and 100,000 dollars to install.

I asked the project oversight what that was for, and they said, "when we need to mitigate some wetlands, we'll turn that pump on and flood this area".

As we were in the middle of the "electricity crisis" I mentioned that that would cost a pretty penny to run and they replied "oh yea, the [some Federal agency like BLM or Forest Service, I forget] site up the road costs about 18,000 dollars a month when they run theirs".

Oh, did I mention, this "wetlands mitigation" site is in the middle of the desert?

I wonder what the folks up in Klamath think about using water like this...

[TaRaRaBoomDeAyGoreLostToday!]

What about trumping the environwackos and bringing back that ole truck that cruises the neighborhood spraying for mosquitos; like when I was a kid.

[Lil'freeper]

don't whiz in the woods! (instant wetlands)

LOL!

[madfly]

bttt